Monday, May 20, 2013
Misleading Participles
Online, Mayo Clinic writes wonderful, clear, user-friendly descriptions and accounts of different medical conditions. But everyone needs to be watchful of unintentional confusion. English’ll do that to you.
Speaking of dermatitis, these sentences appear:
Avoid products that seem to trigger your rash. Wearing nonlatex gloves while washing dishes, shampooing your hair or handling other products that irritate your skin may help.
Sounds a little like nonlatex gloves could be one of those bad triggers, and also shampooing your hair could be, plus handling irritating products “may help”?! It’s all those “ing” participles in a row that get entangled.
A little thought and revision would make for better communication, with less potential for reader befuddlement.
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